New Avalon Privateers: Warrior's Resolve
by HoyaActual
Summary: Times have definitely been better for Galen and the rest of the 52nd. How can a successful mission go so wrong?
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER 1**

**Avalon City, New Avalon**

**Crucis March, Federated Suns**

**12 July 3067**

His eyes scanned the crowd as people milled about almost aimlessly it seemed. Handshakes and hugs were offered and accepted throughout the reception area. Most of these people were either rich or royalty. All that is except for one person. Galen Tryste knew that no one in this ebbing and flowing throng of people were here for him. His entire family had been killed in a raid when he was just sixteen. "_I had my family around for longer than some people have," _Galen mused to himself. Not much more than a standard day after the raid that killed his parents, Galen had managed to track the bandits down outside of town. After managing to hijack a _Phoenix Hawk_, Galen proceeded to transform the immense grief he had been feeling into an absolutely harrowing flash of rage. Surprise on his side, along with the sheer luck of having hijacked the largest mech in the bandit's force, led to a quick and destructive battle. The militia found the battle site during a sweep of the area while hunting the offending bandits. They found Galen unconscious in the cockpit of the _Phoenix Hawk_ which was sprawled out with the legs badly damaged. Next to it lay the crushed torso of a _Commando_ mech.

Galen had spent the next week trying to explain to the authorities that he was not in fact part of the bandit group that attacked, but a survivor and ultimately executioner. The lance commander who showed up had put two and two together and figured out that the sixteen year old kid had managed to pull off a death from above attack on the commando after having the large laser of the _Phoenix Hawk_ destroyed. The media got a hold of the story and Galen had been the media's darling for a while. Archon Prince Victor Steiner-Davion had gotten wind of the story also and awarded Galen a spot in NAIS' College of Military Science.

Five years had passed and today Galen was graduating in the top one percent of his class. Galen allowed himself a subdued smile as he thought of how proud his parents would have been had they lived to see this. The smile evaporated quickly as he reminded himself that if his parents were alive, he would be graduating training from the militia on his home world instead of here in New Avalon.

Galen was brought out of his reverie when he felt a hand lightly touch his shoulder. He turned around to find himself looking at one of the few friend he had made during his stay at CMS. Sergeant-major Samuel Addison had a huge smile on his face as he shook Galen's hand.

"Galen, these are my parents Frederick and Marites Addison", Samuel said as his friend shook both of their hands.

"I finally get to meet you after all this time", Galen replied with a sincere smile. Samuel was always talking about his family and how normal they were despite being very rich. "Samuel is always going on about your desserts", he directed to Marites.

"Yes, I always have to make extra to make sure there is enough for everyone else", Samuel's mother replied with a huge smile.

"Well I hope you manage to keep him out of too much trouble seeing as how he can't tie his shoes without falling down", Frederick joked.

"I'm sure it will be the other way around sir, Samuel does have one of the cooler heads in our graduating class", countered Galen in an attempt to not let his friend's parents embarrass their son.

With a polite smile and a lame excuse Galen excused himself from the gathering and made his way out of the reception hall. He made his way slowly back to his dorm. Along the way Galen thought about his friend and the easy way he got along with his family. Galen missed that for himself. He recalled arguing with his brother over who was a better pilot, Kai Allard-Liao or Khan Phelan Ward. They had heard about many of the exploits of both and Galen was quite sure that Kai Allard-Liao was the better pilot. He was a former Champion of Solaris, which was no easy feat for any person. Of course Shane believed Khan Phelan Ward was the better pilot because the clans were deadly enemies and killed many of the Inner Sphere's better pilots. The cool night air felt good and Galen enjoyed it as much as he could. He would be cooped up in a dropship for a while to get to his new home.

Galen did some light research on his soon to be home. Nopah was an interesting planet but Galen was a bit disappointed that it was not on any war front that he was aware of. The only thing that managed to assuage his feelings was the fact that it was one jump away from the Liao borders. Galen wondered if there was any coincidence that the bandits who attacked his town and killed his parents were Liao bandits. He was sure that little bit of information had more than a little to do with his posting. It was fine with Galen. It was much better prospect than some of the fighting he'd had to participate in during the civil war.

**Lancaster, Orkney**

**Jade Falcon Occupation Zone**

Star Captain Illyana growled to herself and she read her daily reports. She so wanted the Falcons to resume attacks on the freebirth Inner Sphere. Renewed Fighting would mean glorious deaths in combat and those deaths could create the opening she needed to get back on a front line cluster. Stuck in the Gamma Galaxies Jade Solahma felt like the worst fate she could have suffered. _"I am nothing more than a bandit hunter turned security guard,"_ the clanswoman announced to no one.

"You long for a renewed invasion, quiaff?" came the voice of Illyana's second in command, Star Commander Ethan.

"Aff", I was not bred to be an aging watchdog," Illyana replied. "there is a new war brewing out there, I Can almost touch it. It will be our chance for glory once again".

"The impostors who claim to be the Star League reborn will not last", Star Commander Ethan stated as a matter of fact. "When they tear themselves apart The Falcons will be ready to lead the clans back to Terra. Of this I have no doubt'.

The Two trinaries under the command of Star Captain Illyana were mostly made up of old refits and second line mechs. She piloted one of the few omni mechs in the Jade Solahma. With The Jade Falcons gearing up for renewed incursions on the Inner Sphere, many planets in the Jade Falcon Occupation Zone had very little in the way of garrison forces. Orkney had very little to offer except as a staging point. The lone battlemech factory on the planet was relegated to creating new designs and producing workable prototypes for evaluation by the techs at larger factories.

After speaking to Star commander Ethan, Star Captain Illyana felt an odd chill. She knew in her heart that something huge was about to happen. Whatever it was, it would not involve Orkney. That much, the aging mechwarrior was sure of. _"If it does involve this pitiful planet, we will be woefully unable to prevent it," _Tamara thought to her self before retiring for the evening.

**Hamford, Nopah**

**Capellan March, Federated Suns**

Major Steven "Red" Norris sat sweating in the command couch of his simulator. Heat Lance of Heat Company 2nd Battalion 52nd Avalon Hussars had just decimated the other two lances of Heat Company. The tall commander was nicknamed for the crop of flame red hair sitting atop his head. Major Norris shook his head as he replayed the recently concluded simulation in his head. There were bright spots from all of his pilots during the exercise. The problem was that those bright spots were accompanied by glaring mistakes.

Heat Battalion was slated for a quick raid into the Jade Falcon Oz in four months. Something about extracting some people that the Federated Suns had on some small planet near the Lyran Alliance border. Everything about the mission was very hush hush. So hushed in fact, that he wasn't allowed to tell his people what they were prepping for. When Major Norris added to his woes the fact that several new pilots were not on Nopah for the exercises, things looked pretty grim. The new pilots would arrive in system in time for a month of training before shipping out for their extraction mission.

"Good job Timmy," Major Norris acknowledged as Timothy Miller from Pellet lance walked by.

"Thanks Major," came the response accompanied by a toothy grin.

Everyone from Heat Company were headed to the war room for mission debrief. Timmy was one of those bright spots. Piloting his _Penetrator_, Timmy managed to take down Ramses Ulysses in his _Battlemaster_ and help the rest of Pellet Lance combined with Orb Lance take out Simon Two-Feathers' _Executioner_. Major Norris' own _King Crab_ and Leftenant Misty Sorenson's _Daishi_ had come out of the engagement relatively unscathed after destroying the remnants of the other two lances.

In an effort to shore up the 52nd's overall skill level Major Norris had to make a sacrifice. That sacrifice came in the form of promotions for some of the best pilots in his company to command lances in the rest of the regiment. To replace those pilots, the 52nd had taken on some pilots who were either dispossessed or journeymen warriors who were just looking for something resembling a steady paycheck. Either way, Major Norris was not enthusiastic about his upcoming mission.

Leftenant Carmella Soluna sat in Heat Company's war room. Her recon lance had was finally starting to shape up and this last exercise proved. Carmella was an average pilot with above average looks and it was the latter that had gotten her a lance command. When she had first taken command of Orb Lance there had been some resistance by two of the original lance members. Sergeant Misty Donaldson had requested and received a transfer after their first meeting. Sergeant Major Carrie Ann Masuda had been visibly disappointed at being passed up for the command. Carrie Ann had been the logical choice, having been in 2nd Battalion for the past five years. The infatuation of a Capellan March Marshal proved to be more valuable when it came down to it.

Carmella was still missing her fourth. The gap left by Sergeant Donaldson's transfer had not been filled since it opened four months ago. During simulator exercises her lance was given a _Phoenix Hawk _as the last member of her lance, controlled by the artificial intelligence of the simulator itself. A forty-five ton mech had no place in a recon lance, she thought.

Carmella's thoughts were interrupted by Major Norris as he walked into the war room. "If our opforce is composed of ten year olds, I'd give us a fair shot at winning an up and up battle. As it stands, aside from a few bright performances and lucky shots our overall readiness is terrible."

Captain William Lau had been sitting quietly in one corner of the room until this point. "Sir, Pellet Lance has been performing well in the last few exercises. Especially when it's taken into consideration that just about every sim has us being ambushed before recon can identify hostiles."

"You have a valid point there Captain," then to Leftenant Soluna, "how is that _Hawk_ working out with your lance Carmella?"

"Sir, it's a bit large and slow for a recon lance isn't it?"

"It might be but the techs also programmed it's pilot as a worst case scenario." Worst case being an utter idiot for a pilot, Major Norris ended his response silently.

"When am I getting a warm body in my lance, if I may ask sir?"

Major Norris chuckled at the frustration in the voice of Orb Lance's commander. "Funny you should ask that Carmella, your new pilot should be here before the fifteenth of September." Major Norris accompanied his response with the toss of a folder he had been holding since entering the room.

Carmella opened the file and took a peek. "Aww for the love of Blake, is that why you've been sticking me with a _Phoenix Hawk _all this time?"

"Well," Norris began his counter. "I did say the sim pilot was worst case, but after reading the new kid's dossier I think he may work out better than we initially thought."

"hrmph, he just better live up to the expectations of whomever wrote this dossier," Carmella fumed.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

**System Jump Point, Nopah System**

**Capellan March, Federated Suns**

**29 August 3067**

The dropship Sundowner was as cramped as any other dropship floating around in space. Galen spent most of his time in the dropship's mech bay. Working on his _Phoenix Hawk_ kept him from thinking about how vulnerable mechwarriors were while sitting in an egg in space. Galen had been a bit surprised to learn that his mech was ordered restored and shipped to New Avalon to await Galen's graduation and eventual posting. Galen had taken to calling his mech "Serenity". The mech's name described the the feeling he had experienced the first time he had sat in the mech. Galen had been grieving the loss of his family when he had found the bandits and that grief turned to rage almost instantly. When Galen had dropped down into the command couch of the Phoenix Hawk, he had almost immediately felt insulated and a sort of calm had come over him. It was a feeling he had come to long for and always seemed to be able to find it in the cockpit of a mech.

Samuel found his friend very much how he expected to. Hanging bodily from one of the access panels on his _Phoenix Hawk_. Samuel shook his head as he wondered just how much time Galen logged doing tech work on his mech. The fact that Galen still had several hundred hours of simulator time logged more than the next graduate did not betray the fact that Galen was as adept at fixing his mech as he was at destroying other pilot's mechs.

"Hey grease monkey, are you gonna do anything during the trip aside from spending the whole time hanging out of your mech?", Samuel called up to Galen.

"You mean like get drunk and forget how to walk in a straight line?", came Galen's muffled reply.

"Well, you know how it is, no one enjoys the space travel. I just need to be drunk so I don't remember the whole process. If I did remember exactly what it was like, I might grow some common sense and refuse to do it anymore", taunted Samuel. He knew his friend was one of the few people in the universe who did not want to physically remove his stomach and brain in that order after jumping.

"So you say Sam, but if that's the case why are you down here I figured you wouldn't be talkative till the day after we make planet fall", jibed Galen. "After all by all accounts you should be well into getting drunk seeing as how we are only 5 minutes away from a fold".

Sam winced at that. He had forgotten all about the timing when he had decided to check on his friend. It wasn't out of any worry that Galen would get hurt more than Sam wanted to minimize the damage that Galen would instigate if things got out of hand. Galen had a knack for getting on peoples nerves without even trying. He didn't even need to talk to people. That thousand yard stare Galen was so fond of when dealing with people he didn't like was more than enough. It was Galen's way of saying he didn't wanna speak to that particular person, but it was never received that way. People managed to interpret that stare in a myriad of different ways, not the least often which was hate. People in general had a dislike for being hated especially when they could not see themselves performing any act that should be deserving of it. In response to being hated, they hated right back.

"Yeah well I just thought I might check up on you to make sure you weren't rigging the lithium-fusion batteries to explode when we jump or something. There's no knowing who pissed you off so far on this trip", Samuel snapped back amusedly.

"hrmph", came the grunted reply, Galen was pulling himself out of the access panel. "Destructive and vindictive, I think the were the words Kommandant Richter used at the Academy. Not psychotic and suicidal", Galen said as he dismounted Serenity.

"That was a pretty funny prank", Sam claimed as he remembered that particular lecture.

"Yeah it was" Galen agreed wistfully as the pair headed out of the mech bay.

"So what were you doing this time? You know with all the tech time you put into her, some might think she was owned by someone who didn't know what to do with the lens side of a large laser", Sam both asked and opined in the same breath.

"I was just checking on the hip actuator, the last time I took her out she got a little shaky midway 'tween cruise speed and max. The ride quieted at max speed but on unfamiliar terrain that little shake could mean the difference between being in my cockpit and being on the cockpit. You know?" Galen explained making a very valid point. No one wanted their mech wearing them as war paint.

The pair of mechwarriors stopped and sat on a bench as the multi tone signal sounded, alerting them that a jump was about to take place. Both pilots became oblivious of one another as the universe seemed to turn inward on itself. For Galen it was much like being in a womb except where a womb would be pitch black, this womb had all the stars in the universe scrolling across a vast blackness. It was quiet here with nothing to intrude on the sight. Just as quickly as it had started, Galen's womb disappeared. He became aware of his surroundings, which included his friend Sam groaning next to him on the bench.

"You cannot ever expect me to believe that humans were built to subject themselves to that form of torture", muttered Sam indignantly.

"Probably not Sam", Galen offered with a smile."Probably not".

As Sam walked to his cubicle he thought about his friend and how far he had come. When they had first met, Galen was angry. Not at anyone in particular, but at everyone in general. There was not a soul at the academy that didn't know about how Galen got admitted, and many of them tried to test him. They wanted to know what the new kid was all about. Galen was more than game and tried his best to accommodate every single person who tested him. Sam's original group of friends had wound up cornering Galen one day and proceeded to bait him into a fight. Galen had dished out more than his fair share of bloody noses and blackened eyes, but eventually succumbed to the numbers. Sam had happened on the altercation and felt a little bit of pride for the kid getting mugged and quite a bit of anger that his so called friends would resort to such tactics. They were after all going to be in the same army and there was no real reason for such actions, especially since Sam had never seen Galen start any of the trouble he got into.

After that fight, Sam had hounded Galen relentlessly. He realized that with the reputation Galen was gaining for himself, Galen would soon find himself an outcast and booted from the academy. He had earned Galen's trust slowly and found that Galen was a devoted friend, always ready to help with whatever Sam was having trouble with. Sam was no dummy but he did have trouble with advanced tactics. He knew that in the end this trouble would prove to be his stumbling block and would result in becoming a journeyman mech pilot. Never amounting to much more than a lance commander. It became apparent that Galen realized it too, when one day Galen had proclaimed that he would never let Sam get assigned to a unit where he would be cannon fodder for either the clans or anyone else.

**Outskirts, Hamford, Nopah**

**Capellan March, Federated Suns**

Field exercises were just ending for 2nd Battalion of the 52nd Avalon Hussars. Rapid deployment and retreat tactics were the focus of the field exercises for the past week. Major Norris was impressed with the units ability to follow orders. His only regret was that several lance commanders were seemingly incapable of independent thinking. A month from now 2nd Battalion would be performing a raid/extraction and if things went badly a separated lance would need to act independently of the parent unit. His own Heat Company had one of those lance commanders in Leftenant Carmella Soluna. Her obsession with stealth maneuvers were a bit disturbing. If her lance were not Heat Company's recon lance it wouldn't bother Major Norris as much.

Major Norris had received word that two of 2nd Battalion's new pilots were in-system and five days out. Both pilots were fresh grads from New Avalon's CMS and rated well. The older of the two pilots would go to Bravo Battalion to fill out their heavy lance. The younger pilot rode a forty five ton _Phoenix Hawk _and would be filling out Carmella's Orb Lance. The dossier on the younger pilot showed remarkable natural skill paired with a desire for improvement. His family was killed during a Liao raid at the beginning of the Fedcom Civil War. After stealing a bandit's mech he managed to destroy the small unit. Most of the bandits were caught out of their mechs while two had managed to get underway. The twenty ton _Stinger_ went down quickly but the larger _Commando _had made a fight of it. In the end desperation and too many Immortal Warrior holovids prevailed. The young pilot had performed a DFA otherwise known as a _Death From Above_ on the _Commando. _Youth, unfamiliarity, and lack of actual knowledge resulted in the young pilot crushing the cockpit of the _Commando_. The other result was his lack of skill in actually landing his own mech.

"Carmella, your new pilot will be here in five days. You are gonna have a month to get him integrated with Orb Lance."

"No worries Major," came the response.

I always worry, the Major murmured to himself on the way to his quarters. "If you think so Leftenant, just make sure he gets up to speed on the maneuvers we've been working on."

**Lancaster, Orkney**

**Jade Falcon Occupation Zone**

The rain had been going on for two days straight now and the fertile ground outside of Lancaster soaked it up thirstily. Star Captain Illyana sat staring out of the cockpit of her _Timberwolf_. The armored window of the seventy five ton mech had rivulets of water streaming down it's face.

"This is Beak Alpha, beta quadrant clear. Mix one report."

"Gamma quadrant clear Star Captain, we are to strike camp for the evening quiaff?", came the reply from Star Commander Maddox the commander of the elemental point embedded in Mix one.

"Aff," Commander. Strike camp and set up a perimeter." Illyana switched to address her star. "Beak Main set up a perimeter and prepare to strike camp for the evening."

Extended patrols were a necessity with the lack of a garrison on Orkney. The original 24th Provisional Garrison Cluster had been reassigned due to movements by Clan Hell's Horses. With just two mixed force trinaries and a binary of fighters to protect the planet, the Jade Solahma was forced to spread itself thin. The line of thinking had been that since the planet had little of industrial or agricultural value no one would be coming to take the planet in the aftermath of the Fedcom Civil War. The main concern was the little factory that produced a maximum of three prototype mechs a year.

**Outskirts of Lancaster, Orkney**

**Jade Falcon Occupation zone**

Major Rafael Jourison put his range finder down while referring to a map partially folded to reveal the city of Lancaster. His five man team was responsible for getting into the small factory on the edge of Lancaster and getting out to a designated dust off site. There they would be met by an extraction team that would take them off planet and back to Fedcom Space. Rafael's team were to be on planet for a maximum of four months. That gave them lots of time to learn the garrisoning units habits and schedules and initiate their mission right before the extraction team was due. Major Jourison checked his comm unit and sighed as he realized that nothing would be forthcoming for a while.

Leftenant James Harrison was the lone mech pilot on the five man team. He had been selected to come along and make sense of any battlemech plans the team managed to find. He would point out any plans that made immediate tactical sense to him and in the event of happening upon an actual prototype, it would be his duty to pilot it to the extraction point. The clans were not very good about security on mechs as theft was frowned upon mightily with dire consequences. Leftenant Harrison looked at the three other team members. Master Tech Charles Simperton was in charge of defeating any electronic security they would come across at the factory and to make needed repairs to equipment while the mission was in effect. Sergeant Majors Pointdexter and Logan were the heavy hitters of the group. Both non commission officers were in charge of the teams own security, and as such both soldiers were loaded down with weapons that would make the average soldier blush.

"All right team Theta quadrant is mapped, let's head back to Iota and camp for the night," came the order from Major jourison.

"Aye aye sir." was the reply from the four other team members.

The five man team made their was silently back to a hidden cave they had found about 8 kilometers southeast of Lancaster. The cave had a large opening that was covered by vines and overgrowth. The inside of the cave sloped down into the earth as it opened up to a large chamber like cavern. The extraction team would send a decoy broadcasting a wide band encrypted signal. The signal would seem like gibberish to anyone but Major Jourison and his team, and that would signal that they had three days to complete the mission and be ready for extraction. The plan was to hit the factory the day after the signal was broadcast and make their way back to the cave. The extraction point was 25 kilometers east of the cave and the small motorbikes the team had would take them to the dropship that would get them off planet. In the event that they stole a prototype, Leftenant Harrison would pilot that to the extraction site while the rest of the team would make use of the bikes.

All five team members ate in silence as the sky darkened outside. The meals consisted of a variety of self heating field rations. While not very tasty it provided the nutrition needed to survive indefinitely. The only person not intimately acquainted with the field rations was Master Tech Simperton. It was evident by the grimace that accompanied every bite of the food he took. _"Four more months of this synthesized pet food is not my idea of a vacation, then again the brochure never mentioned gourmet meals," _Master Tech Simperton thought to himself.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3**

**Fordham Starport, Nopah**

**Capellan March, Federated Suns**

**3 September 3067**

The dropship landed on time and with no undue excitement. Galen and Sam sat in the cockpits of their mechs awaiting permission to disembark. When the call came out over the tac-com Galen exited in his _Phoenix Hawk_ followed by Sam in his seventy five ton _Penetrator_. Both pilots knew the weight differences of their mechs precluded the two from ever being in the same lance, but being in the same regiment was enough of a reassurance.

"PXH-1 and PTR-4D this is base command", came the call over the network.

"This is PTR-4D Sergeant Major Samuel Addison, I read you five by five standing by for instructions", Sam replied.

"Sergeant Major Addison please report to mech hangar two bay six", command ordered.

"Understood command, proceeding to mech hangar two, bay six", confirmed Sam.

"I guess this really is a business trip", Galen joked over a tight beam.

"That's a fact Galen, that's a fact", Sam responded with a chuckle.

"Cadet Tryste please proceed to mech hangar one bay twelve", Command interrupted the chatter with Galen's orders.

"Roger command", was all Galen said in reply.

Leftenant Carmella Soluna watched with amusement as her new lancemate parked his _Phoenix Hawk_ in the designated bay. A _Phoenix Hawk_ was a rather large mech for a scout lance. If this rookie's scores were any less than stellar she would have refused to take him on with Orb Lance. The bigwigs had pointed out that if he did not get this posting Cadet Tryste would be mustered out to some planetary militia where his skill would be wasted. Carmella smiled as Galen spun his mech on it's heels in place at the designated bay. It was a fluid move that hinted at the competency of the pilot on board. Many pilots would have turned in the middle of the hangar and backed in or shuffle their feet to turn which was the visual equivalent of a person jogging in place while turning.

Galen noticed a woman standing to the side as he parked his mech. A tall lithe frame, shoulder length jet black hair pulled into a loose ponytail, and a curious sparkle in her blue eyes. Someone that pretty belonged on holovids he thought. The only thing that gave her away as anything but a holovid star was the fact that this woman was dressed in a cooling vest. Galen turned his attention away for a moment as he tended to shutdown procedures. As he finally climbed out of the cockpit of his _Phoenix Hawk_, Galen figured she was a new lancemate come to check out the competition.

"Cadet Tryste, I am Leftenant Carmella Soluna, Orb Lead". As the words left her mouth, Galen's eyes widened. _"Oh crap, she's my CO and here I am grinning like some daft farmer at her"_ .

"Greetings Leftenant", was the only thing that would come out of Galen's mouth. _"Definitely daft", _came the thought immediately after.

"It's nice of you to join us but this week's live formation exercises were concluded half an hour ago, you'll get to prove your worth in that over sized binocular during simulations next week", Carmella prodded looking for some kind of reaction out of her new recruit. She was taken by surprise at Galen's smile as he asked when he should report for duty and where could he find the simulators.

"PT is at 0430 zulu time, every morning. Daily assignments are given during morning briefs which are at 0600 in the war room", Carmella informed Galen.

"Thank you sir".

"See you bright and early rookie", came Carmella's response as she walked out the door of the hangar. She smiled to herself as Galen frowned at being called a rookie.

The next morning came much too early for Galen. PT it turned out must mean physical torture in the 52nd Avalon Hussars. It was a grueling hour long exercise regimen that reminded Galen of Basic training all over again. Galen met the rest of Orb Lance but the training regimen was so rigid that he did not have time for more than introductions. Morning briefings turned out to be a very descriptive phrase. Major Norris handed out assignments quickly, asked for questions and got none, then dismissed the company.

Orb Lance's assignment turned out to be simulator time. They would be running recon for Pellet Lance against Heat Lance. Pellet was the designation for Heat Company's fire lance while Heat Lance was the company command lance made up of assaults. As Galen strapped into his chair the rest of his lance filled him in on things. Galen learned that Heat Lance had managed to accumulate an impressive number of wins against the rest of their company. The mission today was the same as always it seemed, and that was a hunter/killer mission. Major Norris decided that until the other two lances could manage that scenario, it would be "The" scenario.

"Orb four on-line, all readings nominal", confirmed Galen as the instrument panels came to life in his cockpit. "Switching to passive sensors"

"Affirmative Orb Four, this is Orb Lead", came the response. "Proceed to nav point Alpha, keep speed at 74 and watch for visuals".

"Orb Lead this is Pellet Lead, do you read?", came the call from Captain William Lau.

"I read you Pellet Lead, holding for visual of nav point alpha", Carmella responded from the cockpit of her thirty five ton _Raven_.

During the conversation Galen had sped up to 74 kilometers per hour and headed to alpha, which turned out to be a lightly wooded area. Heat Lance could be anywhere, but in order for them to be this close the starting point for Orb and Pellet Lances, they'd have to be shut down. Upon reaching nav point alpha, Galen looked at the cliff off to his left.

"nav point alpha clear," Galen confirmed for his teammates. "Lead, do we have anyone checking the plateau to the north?"

"Negative orb four, we're chasing down assaults not a bunch of mediums," came the response from Orb Lead. Galen could hear the edge in her voice. _Oh no, she's one of those do as I say or go to hell lance commanders. No wonder these guys keep losing to one lance of assaults. _

"Roger Orb Lead. Proceeding to nav point beta, switching to active sensors," Galen proclaimed. Soluna had ordered them to stay on passive sensors till they got a visual, which made no sense to Galen since they were performing a hunt/kill mission and not a raid.

"You switch to active sensors and I'll tag you and call an indirect from Pellet," came the threat over orb lance's channel. Then, "Orb two proceed to nav point charlie, three swing around the south side of the ridge to our right and head to nav point echo. I'm heading to nav point gamma."

Galen reached beta with no problems and followed the southern bank of the lake that sat in the middle of the plains. To his south Pellet made their way to nav point gamma under wooded cover. Carrie Ann Masuda in Orb two took the northern banks of the lake and headed for a rendezvous with Galen at nav point delta. Frank Hughes called an all clear from echo and proceeded to gamma. Galen was just about to exit the cover of thick trees when he saw what looked like a rather large eddy in the water of the lake.

Before Galen could call for Carrie Ann to hold off on delta, Norris' one hundred ton _King Crab_ came scurrying out of the lake on the right flank of Carrie Ann's twenty ton _Locust_. She made an effort to cut to her north to put distance between her and the volatile mech. From Galen's perspective it seemed a bit ironic to see the huge crablike mech come surging up out of the water like it's namesake. That irony was lost to Carrie Ann. Just as she took her Locust up to full speed, both of the _King Crab's_ twenty class auto- cannon ultras belched a face full of depleted uranium at her. The first shot completely disintegrated her right leg. The second shot strayed high as the locust went down in a crumpled heap and slid a good ninety meters causing further damage to the rest of her mech.

"Orb four here, Orb two is down," Galen called over the comm. "Visual on the the _King Crab_, Permission to switch to active sensors and engage." Silently Galen was agitated, If they were running with active sensors Carrie Ann would have noticed the _King Crab_ on magnetic resonance. Galen took aim and let off a shot from the pistol looking extended range large laser in his mech's right hand. The laser burned half a ton worth of armor off the _King Crab's_ left arm. The super heated armor hissed as it fell into the water and created a large cloud of smoke.

"Orb four why are you firing?" came Carmella's question. "All units switch to active sensor and call in coordinates for Pellet."

Galen saw Carmella's _Raven_ three hundred meters to his east creeping towards the edge of the woods there. Frank Hughes' _Valkyrie_ appeared over the ridge to the southeast riding silver gouts of flame from it's jump jets.

"All units Orb three here, confirm visual. _Battlemaster_ atop the plateau northwest of nav point charlie."

Just as Frank confirmed the visual on the _Battlemaster_, a hundred long range missiles swarmed over the head of the _Executioner_ exiting the lake from the south side of the lake. Only half of them made it to the _King Crab_, but it made for an impressive display as explosions peppered the _King Crab_ while it turned to close on Galen and his _Phoenix Hawk_. As a little over three tons of armor showered the ground around the large assault mech, the sudden loss of mass threw the _King Crab_ off balance and it crashed to the ground. Galen spun his mech to it's left and withdrew deeper into the wooded area surrounding him. Carrie Ann was as good as out of the fight being in a mech with no arms and having a leg blown out from under her, but the _Battlemaste_r made sure she was out of commission with a pair of shots from the Extended range PPC.

Carmella looked on stunned. The _Executioner_ was a ninety-five ton mech with the speed of most heavies, meaning it could show up in a hurry. As it exited the water, the executioner unleashed fire from three of it's large pulse lasers. One of the bursts of green laser stitched a nasty scar on her _Raven's _left leg. Another was square on target and repeatedly peeled away armor from her center torso area. The last burst went wide and vaporized several trees to her right as the executioner over compensated his aiming while exiting the water. Carmella returned fire with both of her medium lasers and a shot from her Narc missile beacon. The thin blue beams carved armor off the larger mech's upper right leg. The _Executioner_ seemed hardly bothered by the loss of armor and kept coming. The Narc beacon hit it's target on the right torso and began sending it's signal.

While Carmella called for support from Pellet, Simon Two-Feathers returned fire as he hit level ground and made a dash for the woods Carmella's _Raven_ hid in. Simon pulled the trigger on his bank of four medium lasers in his right arm. Being clustered together mean they would either all hit or all miss and this time around the blue beams hit the _Raven_ and lashed off over a ton of armor from the _Raven's_ right torso. The lasers melted half of the infrastructure of Carmella's _Raven_ before being diffused in the huge cloud of steam created by the superheated metals. The machine gun staccato of green laser bolts from three separate pulse larger lasers stitched their way down the the _Raven's_ center torso and right leg as Simon brought his _Executioner_ to his left , hoping to put some trees between the missile boats and himself..

Carmella dropped her mech in an awkward squat as six score long range missiles streaked directly over her. A few salvos were launched hastily but the signal being sent by the beacon helped those correct themselves in flight. Two steady beams of green reached out from the _Executioner's_ right flanked to melt a ton of armor of the left arm right before the swarm of missiles impacted. Explosions blossomed all over the large charging mech covering it in a sheet of fire. The huge loss of mass staggered the _Executioner._ It stumbled and for a split second Carmella thought it was going to withstand the barrage. To Carmella's relief the _Executioner's_ efforts to compensate resulted in the balance shifting even further and it toppled in slow motion as it's pilot struggled to keep his mech standing.

"Orb two this is Orb four I need you to distract the _Battlemaster_ on the plateau. The _Daishi_ still has not engaged so stay clear of delta," Galen called.

The_ King Crab_ meanwhile had decided to take a shortcut and riding huge gouts of silver flame jumped from the east to the west shore of the lake in hopes of cutting Galen off from the woods to the north. As the _King Crab_ landed, Galen noticed the smoke coming from the left claw-like appendage representing it's arm. _"That missile salvo must have damaged his left arm's cannon, that would be nice to take advantage of if I could shake that damn Battlemaster." _Reminded of the _Battlemaster_, Galen looked up to see the mech tracking a jumping Frank Hughes while it stood on an outcropping from the plateau.

Major Steven Norris was annoyed. He had managed to get off one round from the Class Twenty Auto-cannon ultra in his mech's left arm before it was destroyed by the huge indirect missile strike. He knew Carrie Ann was an above average pilot but even she couldn't give coordinates for a missile strike while skidding across the ground after losing her leg. The large laser that had slew off armor from his left arm before the missile strike had to have come from Timothy Miller in his seventy-five ton _Penetrator_. He also had been the one to call in the strike.

"Heat Two head directly south of your position and assist Heat Three, Heat Four keep the high ground and see if you can snipe Timothy in the woods to my south", Major Norris barked out as he made his way towards the wooded area the _Penetrator_ had to be hiding in. He smiled to himself, soon Timothy would have to stay there and fight him up close or leave via the south side of the woods and get sniped at by Ramses in his _Battlemaster_.

Frank Hughes was getting tired of being bait. He was dancing in and out of range of the extended range ppc on Ramses' _Battlemaster_, trying to keep him occupied. If he failed to hold the attention of Ramses, the new kid Galen would be toast as soon as he exited the woods. He just wished he could actually fire back. Ramses was a lousy shot and if Frank had one of those ER PPCs on his mech he be picking the journeyman pilot apart. _"How do you only get promoted to corporal after serving for five years," _Frank thought to himself.

Major Norris was about to enter the woods in front of him when he saw movement just a bit further in. He glanced down at his monitors, aside from some heavy damage on his left flank and arm he was in good shape. A pair of missiles from the earlier salvo had hit his cockpit but not breached it and didn't concern him much. When he looked back up, Major Norris laughed. Coming up to confront him was Cadet Tryste in his _Phoenix Hawk_ and he was almost in range of his heavy auto-cannon. Major Norris saw the _Phoenix Hawk_ pull up short and let loose with a burst of blue laser fire from each of it's torsos. Those stitched their way up the lower center torso doing minimal damage. His laugh was cut short as a the green light reaching out from the _Phoenix Hawk_ drew a line straight at his cockpit.

Leftenant Misty Sorenson powered up her _Daishi_ and made a dash for the woods to the south. As Misty left the area that had been her hiding spot, she noticed a shadow over the open area betweens trees. She looked up to see a _Valkyrie_ coming down directly on top of her. She had just enough time to launch an alpha strike. A wave of heat washed through her cockpit as she pulled her trigger. The shot from her Class Twenty Auto-cannon Ultra shredded all the armor from the _Valkyrie's_ left leg and snapped myomer strands. The Gauss ball flew of into the sky missing wide followed by the rest of her weapons.

Frank Hughes had jumped in near nav point delta to goad Misty into action wherever she might be hiding in the woods. It had surprised him to no end to see her dash out of the woods. What at first looked to be a stroke of good luck turned bad rather quickly. In her moment of panic Misty's destruction of his left leg had altered the trajectory of the _Valkyrie_. Couple with the loss of forward movement Misty's _Daishi_, Frank's trajectory changed from landing in a direct flank of her Daishi to landing directly on top of her in what looked like a huge mechanized body slam.

Corporal Ramses Ulysses saw the huge mess unfolding below. Major Norris had fallen to a head shot from one of Timothy Miller's ER large lasers. Misty was not responding after Frank Hughes' _Valkyrie_ had landed directly on top of her. Simon in his _Executioner _had disappeared into the woods south of the lake and started calling for support. With Major Norris gone Ramses decided that he should show some initiative and take out Timothy in his _Penetrator_. He never liked the guy to begin with. _"Always so sure of himself, he deserves a PPC to the face", _Ramses thought to himself.

Galen saw The _Battlemaster_ disappear back beyond the edge of the cliff. He put his _Phoenix_ Hawk into a full sprint heading directly north. Sixty meters from the face of the cliff, Galen stomped on the pedals of his jump jets sending him soaring up to the edge of the cliff. The maneuver had just enough thrust for Galen to make it onto the ledge. He kept his mech's speed at the full ninety six kilometers per hour as he touched down. Trying to stop as soon as he landed would have resulted in a nasty spill with all the forward momentum he had. Galen leaned heavily to his left as he puts his mech's right foot forward to stop his forward movement rapidly as he spun the _Phoenix Hawk_ on it's left foot.

Ramses caught a blip on his sensors to his north as he traversed the narrow trail down to the battlefield. He had forgotten to switch to active sensors when the trap was sprung, being anxious to put another kill under his belt. Ramses turned left as he reached the bottom of the trail. Expecting Timothy Miller in his _Penetrator_, Ramses was surprised to find nothing there. Suddenly the _Battlemaster_ shook and his monitors went haywire for a second. It took only that long for Ramses to realize that he did not actually get hit by a particle beam but was suffering feedback from the destruction of the extended range particle projection cannon in his mech's left hand.

Galen almost let out a giggle as he watched the pistol like ER PPC blow up in the _Battlemaster's_ hand. It was almost like watch old reruns of Immortal Warrior. The _Battlemaster_ spun on it's heels to face Galen's _Phoenix Hawk_. Thin blue beams stabbed out from the medium lasers in the _Battlemaster's_ torsos and melted half the armor from the smaller mech. Galen raised his ER large laser, lead off by the machine gun like bursts of his pulse medium lasers, he pulled the trigger on the larger laser. All three lasers hit the large canopy of _Battlemaster's_ cockpit disintegrating it. A minute later Simon Two-Feathers ejected from his executioner as the fire team poured salvo after salvo into it.

**15 kilometers outside Hamford, Nopah**

**Capellan March, Federated Suns**

Sam leaned against the foot of his seventy five ton _Penetrator. _He had been assigned to Alpha Company of 2nd Battalion. As soon as he had reported for duty, same had learned that he needed to get his gear together and report back to his mech. Alpha Company was about to run a week long patrol. _"Galen has got to be the luckiest son of a gun in the world," _he thought to himself. If Sam was out on patrol that would mean that Heat Company was on base and not stuck in the rain that plagued Nopah at the transition from Summer to Fall. When Sam's heavy lance got word from their recon team the order went out to mount up and move out.

Sam had fit right into his unit with his easy attitude and expansive sense of humor. Alpha Company was probably the unit with the highest overall rating in the 52nd. Most of the pilots were veterans and the few greens in the unit were skilled enough to hold their own. Of course even green or recruit pilots these days had some experience since the Fedcom Civil War had left almost anyone who could pilot a mech with some actual battlefield experience.

"So what's the deal with Heat Company," Sam asked his lance mate Coporal "Dido" Simeona over his comms as they moved out.

"Battalion Commanders own company," Dido answered with a knowing hitch in his voice.

"Hrmm, why does it sound like you wanna follow that with an outright laugh big guy?"

Dido did laugh this time, "Heat Company is a joke. Don't get me wrong Major Norris is a good C/O and all, but he gave away half of his company to bring up the batt's over all strength. He's got a couple of good pilots but some of them are "has beens" or "should never have beens", I'm telling ya man."

"Damn a good friend of mine just got assigned to their recon lance."

"We got a mission we're being deployed for end of month. If we see actual fighting kiss your friend goodbye, Leftenant Soluna is one of those "should never have beens"."

"Well doesn't that just stink a royal one," Sam said, silently taking back his admonition of Galen for his apparent luck.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4**

**Lancaster, Orkney**

**Jade Falcon Occupation zone**

**2 December 3067**

Major Jourison glanced out the window of what was once known as Blastwerx Mech Factory. Upon gaining entrance to the factory one thing became apparent to the five man team. Factory was a misnomer in the most obvious sense. The two buildings that sat side by side was originally used for mech customization. There was no actual mech production lines in operation much less existing in either building. Master Tech Simperton sat at a console connected to the mainframe the Jade Falcon techs used to store information. Leftenant Harrison was in the cockpit of a ghastly looking mech. It looked to be a heavy mech maybe seventy five tons with a noticeable lack of weaponry. There was one huge barrel attached to the right arm and several odd looking laser arrays in each torso. The large barrel was the thing that concerned the group the most. It was as large as an Inner Sphere class twenty auto cannon ultra but missing the obvious feeds that would make it an auto cannon of any type they knew. The armor on the mech looked cobbled together out of large sheets cut to fit in place.

Sergeant Major Logan glanced at his watch impatiently as he adressed the rest of the team. "We need to get going, the turkeys don't know we're here yet and it would be best to keep it that way till we're about to dust off."

"I gotcha Sar Major," Major Jourison reassured the trooper. "ninety eight percent uploaded, we'll open the hangar door and send the Leftenant on his merry way."

**10 kilometers North of Lancaster**

**Jade Falcon Occupation Zone**

Star Captain Illyana pounded her fist on her thigh as she growled in irritation. "Have you found any sign of the invaders?"

"Neg, Star Captain," came the reply. "Aerospace sensors identified the drop ship as _Union Class Dropship."_

She knew the invaders had to be in the general vicinity. A _Union Class Dropship_ could only deliver a company of mechs. That meant they were defending at a little better than two to one odds. Since the dropship had refused to respond while landing she was not required to offer batchall to the attackers. They would pay for their insolence with their lives and their deaths would be an example for whomever had initiated the attack.

"Star Commander Ethan take Beta ten kilometers West and set up watch. Alpha will proceed back South to engage the southern landing force.

"Aff Star Captain."

"We may not intercept the invaders before they reach the city, deal with these here and regroup with Alpha to repel the rest of the invaders. Aerospace assets will be diverted to assist you."

As Illyana gave the order to double back and intercept the southern forces, she recalled the feeling of ill winds she suffered several months ago. Time had passed and the invisible menace she had foreseen never showed up. The Jade Solahma had fallen into a rhythm with their patrols and aside from the occasional trial of grievance stemming from disagreements, her unit had grown complacent. Silently she kicked herself for letting it happen. _"That is the likely reason I am stranded on this desolate planet guarding a city housing a bunch of techs."_

**28 Kilometers South of Lancaster, Orkney**

**Jade Falcon Occupation Zone**

The rest of 2nd Battalion had dropped in on a two hour delay behind Heat Company's decoy drop. Defending aerospace units had converged on the larger force burning in to the South of the city and the "Void Treaders" wing of the 52nd Avalon Hussars did their best to repel them from the landing dropships. _Sundowner _and _Planetfall,_ the two _Union Class Dropships _carrying one company each were accompanied by the smaller _Bright Wind Leopard Class Dropship._ The smaller of the three was empty of anything but it's crew.

Sam sat in his cockpit fidgeting with the frayed edges of a small folder_. _The very few times Sam had gone into combat during the civil war were hurried with very little time to think about possible outcomes. This time was very different. After setting up a perimeter to protect the landing craft, there was very little to do except wait. This mission had come so quickly after Sam and Galen had been assigned to the unit, that neither of the two were able to become completely acquainted with specific responses to situations expected by the battalion's chain of command. It was in this vein of thought that Sam had brought his mission briefing with him into the cockpit of his mech.

The moment of silence Sam had was interrupted by the sultry voice of the onboard computer in his _Penetrator._

"Enemy detected"

Sam nearly jumped out of his skin at the voice and focused on the view screen in front of him. The mech recognition software uploaded into Sam's mech was updated with the latest patches. Latest software not withstanding the computer cycled through known chassis starting with a _Thunderbolt_, and ending with a blank screen. Sam wanted to punch something badly. He decided they would all be better served by calling in the contact and getting some help in case the approaching mech turned out to be out of his league.

"This is Portable Two, reporting contact with an unidentified mech. No recognizable chassis and no IFF signal," switching to a tightbeam to the incoming mech, "Unidentified mech, please state your business and turn on your IFF signal or we will be forced to turn you away."

"Cashier this is Shopping Cart, I repeat this is shopping cart," came the reply that utterly confused Sam.

Fumbling through the folder sitting on his lap, Sam found the ID challenge for Operation Checkout. Shaking his head as he read the challenge, "How will you be paying today?"

"Cash," came the confident reply. "Credit" would have been the response if the pilot were under duress with "check" identifying close pursuit.

"Proceed with current coordinates to the extraction point, we're here to take you home Leftenant."

**20 Kilometers Northwest of Lancaster, Orkney**

**Jade Falcon Occupation Zone**

Galen shook his head as he made his way West through the dense jungle North of Lancaster. Carmella had ordered Carrie Ann in her _Locust_ ahead of the main recon force followed by herself in her _Raven._ Galen and Frank were flanked to either side about midway between Carmella and Carrie Ann. Pellet and Heat Lances were hanging back one kilometer from the last recon mech. _"This is one of the reasons we jump capable mechs,"_ Galen thought to himself.

"Orb Lead I have multiple contacts approaching from from the Southeast, looks like a recon star and they're right on top of us!" came Carrie Ann's frantic call.

Orb Three and Four flank both sides, Two pull back to me. Let's draw them in closer to the heavies."

Before Carrie Ann could comply with her orders, her sensors began blaring out warnings that she had a missile lock on her. She braced herself for impact as fifteen long range missiles began to rain down on and around her _Locust._ The missiles peppered her mech with explosions, blasting away a ton of armor. Looking down at her HUD, Carrie Ann saw that the missile barrage had taken out twenty three percent of her mech's overall armor. The on board computer identified her attacker as a twenty ton _Baboon_ strafing to it's right, and out of range of any of her weapons. She continued to back her mech up till she was standing side by side with Carmella's _Raven. _Carrie Ann's computer identified another contact as a _Locust IIC_ as it darted within range and acquired a lock with it's twin streak two packs. Carrie managed to strike back with her pair of extended range medium lasers, melting armor from her newest attacker's right leg and torso.

When Carmella had called out the lance's orders, Galen had increased his throttle and starting flanking toward the East. He spotted a twenty five ton _Icestorm_ slinking through the jungle in an attempt to flank Carrie Ann and Carmella. Galen opened up with his extended range large laser and scored a hit on the center torso of the clan mech which he tried to follow with his medium pulse lasers one burst of laser hit the _Icestorm_ melting away armor from it's right torso. The other burst did an excellent job of turning the tree once standing to the _Icestorm's_ right side into vapor. The clan pilot retaliated with laser fire from its single extended range medium laser and a pair of short range missiles from its lone missile pack. The laser melted armor from the upper left arm of Galen's mech while the one missile that held it's lock impacted the center torso, right below the head. Galen felt the concussion of the missile hit just as the wave of heat created by his own mech was starting to dissipate.

Both pilots had decided to jockey for better positioning before commencing fire, when Galen noticed through the quickly evaporating steam that the armor on his opponent's center torso was completely gone. The clan pilot decided to move off further to the East and as Galen tracked the damaged mech for a shot in the back, his computer alerted him to the presence of a _Baboon_ appearing on his right flank. The new mech let loose a volley of missiles from all three of it's LRM-5 packs. One of the first missiles out hit the low hanging branch of a tree and exploded before traveling more than fifty yards. Several others exploded prematurely due to the shrapnel created by the first missiles. The five remaining missiles chipped away at the already thin armor on the back of Galen's _Phoenix Hawk._ Galen struggled to keep the targeting reticule on the evading _Icestorm_ while thanking his lucky stars that more missiles had not found their mark. As soon as the shock waves subsided, Galen depressed the trigger on his extended range large laser. The green beam lit up the surrounding areas as it drew a line straight to the back of the quickly receding target. The extremely light armor plating disappeared almost instantly into a combination of metallic sludge and vapor with the unexpended energy lancing into the small mech. Galen suppressed a small surge of elation as he saw the _Icestorm_ totter to it's left for a brief second before crashing into a large tree and bouncing itself right to the soft jungle floor.

Frank was cursing his luck. When given the order to flank the attackers, he had decided to jump to his destination instead of trudging through the jungle. Upon seeing the mech riding waves of flame, one of the larger attacking mechs had decided to confront him. The fifty ton _Hellhound_ tracked him as he landed and let loose with a pair of SRM-2 streak launchers and it's large pulse laser. The short range missiles chipped away armor from his left and right legs while the burst of green laser fire melted away armor from his left torso. Frank shook his head as he realized that over fifty percent of the armor on that torso now decorated the jungle's mishap foliage. As soon as Frank landed he spun to face his new hunter and let loose with LRM-15 pack and extended range medium laser. The Artemis IV system connected to his missile launcher paid off when all fifteen missiles hit their mark, blossoming over the top half of the clan mech. The thin blue beam from his medium laser similarly found their mark, melting away armor from the head of the _Hellhound._

Carmella tried to target the clan _Locust_ but Carrie Ann had backed right into her field of fire. She took her _Raven_ to the right and got a lock with her Narc system. With the Narc beacon launched at the devilishly quick clan mech, Carmella jabbed the fire control for her medium lasers and they both lanced out barely missing and vaporizing trees further back in the jungle. The clan mech accelerated to top speed and took off West.

Carmella had to make a decision quickly and she did, "Orb Four, Orb Two is headed for you. I'm heading West to link up with Orb Three."

"Roger," was the reply from her three lance members.

Carmella was about to ask Major Norris where the hell the rest of Heat Company was when she was rudely interrupted by a large explosion to her North.

"Orb Lead this is Heat Actual, the _Davey Crockett_ has been destroyed. Retreat Northwest and regroup with Heat Main. We're gonna have to fight a holding action till Shopping Cart has been emptied."

**28 Kilometers South of Lancaster, Orkney**

**Jade Falcon Occupation Zone**

Sam let out a sigh of relief as he heard the loud clanging of his mech being latched into place on the _Planetfall._ The cacophonous roar of the dropship engines were not enough to drown out the news that Major Norris' dropship had been destroyed by clan fighters and mechs. He could hear the chatter of Heat Company over the battalion channels and it didn't sound very good.

Sam toggled to the company channel, "Sir are we going to disembark to assist heat Company?"

"Negative son, since we did not claim a trial of possession the Falcons likely have reinforcements incoming and our objective is highest priority. If we can get those guys out of clan space and back to New Avalon, Heat Battalion's sacrifice will have a huge impact on the course of the future."

Sam was devastated. The best friend he probably ever had was likely to have a miserable future ahead of him. He would either survive and live on the run be defeated and claimed as isorla or the most likely scenario he could see for his friend, killed in his mech. With his second sigh in as many minutes, Sam shut down his mech. There was no use pondering what ifs. It would only cause him to second guess himself and his nation.


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 5**

**Lancaster, Orkney**

**Jade Falcon Occupation Zone**

Star Captain Illyana could not believe her eyes or ears. Upon reaching the city she had received a transmission from the factory. The security forces and techs had been subdued and the stravag invaders had made off with the prototype mech. Clan Jade Falcon had exerted immense resources into acquiring the weapon mounted on it and she was responsible for giving it away to bandits. She watched the fiery trails in the sky as the two spheroid and smaller aerodyne dropships headed for orbit and destinations unknown. She gave the order for her trinary to head back North and guard the city from the invaders now stranded. Star Captain Illyana would get answers.

**25 Kilometers Northwest of Lancaster, Orkney**

**Jade Falcon Occupation Zone**

Major Norris checked his HUD again. He had nine clan mechs coming at his company from the West and at least five more engaging Orb Lance in the jungles South. Something was missing and he wasn't quite sure what it was. Suddenly Cadet Sorrell began a string of curses that would have made a thirteenth century terran pirate blush. Turning his _King Crab_ in the direction of Shady's mech, Major Norris was reacquainted with his missing element. Shady's sixty ton _Vulture_ was being swarmed by clan elementals.

Private Timothy Miller turned his attention to his lance mate and saw shady Sorrell's mech doing a mechanized version of the hot foot. Suppressing a laugh he started sniping the elementals that had not reached her yet with shots from his medium pulse lasers. Short blue bursts of laser fire acted as tracers as he tracked left and right trying to hit the relatively tiny targets. Timothy was distracted by an abrupt flash of light to his right. Percy Handler in his _Archer _ had decided to launch a missile strike on the ground surrounding Shady's mech. The forty long range missiles tore the earth up in huge gouts as elementals were tossed about in the explosions.

Galen had turned his attention on the clan _Baboon_ as soon as the _Icestorm_ went down. He juked his mech to his left then darted right to duck behind a large tree that had fallen to deterioration. The clan mech bounced along to it's left as it tried to track Galen behind the fallen tree. Just before it cleared the obstruction Galen reversed his direction again and fired at his pursuer. The large green beam of his extended range large laser melted armor from it's center torso in one large stream of ferrous metal. The bursts from his two pulse medium lasers bit deep into the right torso, just below the stack of three LRM-5 racks of the ungainly mech. The resulting ammunition explosion lit the small clearing the battling mechs had made in an eery dancing orange. The explosion rocked the mech so badly that it slammed into the ground as if someone unseen force had picked it up and thrown it. Galen pointed his rifle like large laser at the cockpit of the fallen mech but could see through the canopy that the pilot had been knocked unconcious.

Carmella chased the clan _Locust _West. Carmella decelerated to a complete stop as the clan mech wheeled around, apparently deciding to fight her. The grin that had been about to appear on her face was dashed away and replaced with her jaw dropping as her computer calmly notified her that another enemy had been detected. As she looked down to see what had jumped into the fray, Carmella saw the clan _Locust _take off again. Instead of a twenty five ton clan tech _Locust_, she was now facing what her computer was calling a thirty five ton _Peregrine._ As the _Raven_ pivoted to face the new threat, the new clan mech erupted in a burst of pulse laser fire from the large pulse laser in it's center torso and pulse medium laser in each arm. All three bursts hit her left torso, evaporating the armor there and plunging in to wreak havoc on the extra bulk of the XL engine powering her mech.

Black gouts of smoke billowed from the gaping hole in the left torso of the enemy _Raven. _Mechwarrior Roldan sneered in contempt for the freebirth piloting the damaged mech. He strafed to his right as the enemy mech shied away pivoting to it's left to hide the damaged torso. "_Feh, if you do not want me to blast your engine out from under you, maybe you should never have come to this planet." _ His own whining had made him realize that the mech in front of him could not withstand the concentrated fire of all his lasers in any one location. Roldan stopped his strafing and centered the reticule on his HUD directly over the right torso of the _Raven. _The pilot of the stricken mech seemed to realize his intent and squared off unleashing all of it's weapons in an alpha strike. Half of the six short ranged missiles peppered Roldan along the upper half of his mech, while the two thin blue beams did little more than singe the cold night air as it strayed high and left of him. He initiated his own alpha strike as the enemy mech automatically shut down in an effort to prevent a severe malfunction from lack of heat dissipation. All three laser burned away the armor of the right torso and lit off the remaining SRM ammunition.

Frank Hughes launched a salvo from his LRM-15 pack, but the larger mech was painfully quick and managed to evade the incoming missiles. Frank knew he only needed another shot to the head of the clan mech and he would be able to put it out of commission. With that in mind he aimed for the head of the _Hellhound,_ but his medium laser strayed high and left vaporizing part of the jungle canopy overhead. The clan mech answered with laser fire and four short ranged missiles coming from it's twin packs on the left torso. The pulse large laser ate away seventy percent of the armor covering his center torso. The two medium lasers finished the job and continued on to eat away at the gyroscope, completely demolishing it. As if it were intended to add insult to injury, two of the short range missiles managed to snake their way into his right torso through large gaps in the armor and exploding in the ammunition bin for the _Valkyrie's_ LRM-15 pack.

**13 Kilometers North of Lancaster, Orkney**

**Jade Falcon Occupation zone**

"Heat Actual this is Orb Four, I've lost contact with the rest of Orb Lance. There are at least three clan defenders in the jungle directly between myself and your position, what are your orders." Galen wasn't quite sure what he the game plan was now that the original one had gone awry.

"Orb Four, proceed West twelve kilometers and turn North. Heat Company is engaged at the moment. That should take you to their backside."

"Roger Actual."

_"We're in a bigger mess than he's admitting to, cause I didn't see any extra dropships on our way here."_ Galen mused out loud after sending his comm silent.

Galen cut off his throttle when a fifty ton _Hellhound_ burst out of the jungle just under five hundred meters in front of him. He watched as the obviously surprised clan pilot turned to face him after doing a double take. Ducking back into the safety of the jungle, Galen shot at his new target with the only weapon that would reach. He didn't watch to see if he hit or not. As soon as he got under the cover of jungle, Galen turned back West and crept forward waiting for the _Hellhound _to come crashing through the trees towards him. Curiosity finally got the better of Galen and he eased his way out of the jungle at where he thought the clan mech had been. _"Hot damn,"_ he thought to himself as he came upon the fallen mech. Where the cockpit had been was now a large mass of cooling endosteel structure. Dangling wires, sparking sporadically gave an odd impression of someone welding the face of the prone mech in the dark.

Galen decided to stay along the outside edges of the jungle so that he could stay at maximum speed. It was the sort of hopeless feeling everyone gets when they have when something happens out of their sphere of influence. He kept hoping that the rest of Heat Company could hold out against the defenders and gain some breathing room till he got there. He also knew that particular bit of logic was an epic failure since his _Phoenix Hawk_ would be scrap metal within six seconds of engaging any of the mechs being identified by his fellow soldiers. That still did not ease the knot in his stomach as team mate after team mate had their signal go out.

Galen burst out of the northern edge of the jungle at the point given by Major Norris. The plains before him were littered with pieces of mechs from both sides of the engagement. Timothy Miller's _Penetrator_ was the last of Heat Battalion besides himself still operational. In the dark he could not tell how many from Heat Company had survived their mech's destruction. Timothy yelled at Galen over a laser transmission, to get the hell off the plains into the jungles. Galen charged in and focused on the closest mech to him which turned out to be a _Hunchback IIC_ according to his computer. He got within range of his medium pulse lasers and fired at the clan mech. The pilot of the boxy mech had decided too late to turn around and face the new threat. All of Galen's lasers hit their target across the width of it's back as the mech turned to face him. By the time the larger mech could bring it's deadly weapons to bare, the ammunition had started to explode. The clan _Hunchback_ disappeared in a blinding flash of fusion energy as the shielding on it's engines were compromised by the critical hits.

By the time the ball of fire had completely erupted the remaining clan mechs had turned to face Galen. Not wasting any time, he stuck the right foot of his mech out and let it bunch under him as it stopped his forward movement. Leaning heavily to his right as he pushed the pedals down on his jump jets, Galen sent his mech in floating strafe that took him over the jungle canopy. For a second Galen thought he might be able to pull off an escape. His hopes were ruined when he was shook hard while all of his instruments went haywire. It happened twice more in rapid succession while he was still in the air and his auto ejection mechanism engaged sending him into the night air over the jungle.


End file.
